Interesting snippet from it.
Legend has it that in the Duke of Wellington's final soldiering days, he approved a new Army pay book, which for the first time demanded soldiers' names and details.
The Duke is said to have chosen the name Thomas Atkins as an example to show the men how to fill in the documentation.
But because so many were illiterate, they did not know how to write their own names, and hundreds put themselves down as Thomas Atkins – leading to British soldiers' nickname of 'Tommies'.